For Her
by Tjin
Summary: Xander finally finds what he has been looking for.he just had to make a small detour to get there.BuffyLoTR xover
1. For Her 1

Xander gripped his sword tightly as he thought back on the trials that had brought him to this point.

Leaving Anya at the alter, finding her with Spike, Dusting the undead ass, getting kicked out of the Scooby's for good and putting a good start to out drinking his father's lifetime record all filtered through into his thoughts before the big moment of change.

Charging into a demon nest to save a girl and being thrown through a portal. And landing right smack dab in the middle of the golden halls of Edoras.

Licking his lips to wet them he idly wished he could grab a drink from his flask before forcing the thought from his head. /there will be time for that soon enough./ he decided as he watched the two thousand horsemen line up in position.

Thinking back he realized how lucky he had been not to be cut down where he stood. Instead he was stripped to his boxers, shackled and led back before the king. /and damn Théoden can be scary when he wants to be./ he thought as he went back over the several hours of interrogation he had gone through with Théoden, Gandalf and Aragorn all trying to make him talk. Finally they gave him some clothes and had sent him to a small room guarded by two of the armed and armored men he had later learned where riders of the mark.

After a while there had been a series of whispers and hisses from the other side of his cell door before it slowly opened and then 'She' had entered the room. He had immediately taken a step back and fallen over the cot he had been given to sleep on.

He had tried to hold out and not answer any of her questions, his willpower had lasted a grand total of three point two five seconds before he had collapsed like a house of cards in a hurricane. He had told her everything, so exhausted by it all he had fallen asleep somewhere between explaining how they had beaten Glory and resurrected Buffy.

The next day Xander had been brought before the king and asked to tell his story again.

He had managed to resist their questions for another fifteen or twenty minutes until they brought out the big guns.

She had walked out, sat next to her uncle and asks him to tell them what he had said the night before. All his willpower had disappeared in a flash and he found he was unable to deny her anything.

He shifted again on the horse as he tried to find a more comfortable position before shifting his thoughts again.

It had taken almost an hour of talking before the king had looked over at Gandalf and at his nod signaled the guards and they had taken his shackles off and given him a slightly more fitting set of clothes.

They had left that day for Helmsdeep and after several hours of riding he had felt like a tribe of Mag-lok demons had used him as a punching bag before deciding they would tap-dance on his spine.

He had almost resigned himself to the death of this, but then the tall guy had ridden up and pointed out a few things to help him.

The result was amazing, while he had still been sore the pain had lessened almost immediately, during the three day trip he had gotten quite good at riding and had even become fast friends with the Fellowship as he talked about his world and they had given him the general background on theirs.

The trouble started when he had tried to explain baseball to them. Shaking the stray thought off he resigned himself to simply show them once this war was over. That was another thing. He was in the middle of a WAR!

The fellowship had explained it as best they could but it just wouldn't sink in.

Even when the caravan had been attacked he had simply put his shoulder to the grindstone and killed a couple of monsters that had made a vampire in full game face look normal.

But it was what had happened next that had broken through his reservations. They had been at Helmsdeep for about a day when Aragorn had arrived with information that had sent everyone into a frenzy. Ten thousand Uruk-Hai had marched into the Valley.

No no, that didn't quite do it justice. TEN THOUSAND! Uruk-Hai.

On the hellmouth the most they had ever dealt with was a few DOZEN bad guys, now he stood looking over the battlements at rank after rank of monsters that had been created to do one thing. Kill the few hundred people trapped behind the stone walls. And he had to stop them.

The night had been a blur after that, Cold rain and hot blood had mixed with the dirt to make an almost demonic mud that had crept into every crevice and crack in both his armor and himself.

He remembered the deep cut that had just barely managed to catch him, spinning him away from his attacker and leaving a shallow cut across his chest and several dozen glittering rings from his chainmail to go spinning into the mud. The next thing he knew there had been a deafening roar that brought back memories of graduation day before everything had gone black.

The sharp pain brought him awake quickly and he found he couldn't look away as she carefully tended whatever had made the pain in his head. He had idly wondered where the pain had gone before the thought wandered off and focused on her again.

He remembered how he had fallen for Buffy and the burning desire he had for Cordelia, along with the sudden shift in feeling he had for Willow, the animal attraction he had for Faith, or even the slow near fungus like growth of feeling he had for Anya. Nothing had come close to his feeling at that moment.

It seemed so long ago now, he realized as he half listened to Théoden as he rode down the line and urged his men into battle.

Looking over to the rider next to him, the small hobbit slid deeper into the rider's cloak as the two tried to disappear he gripped his sword tightly and licked his still dry lips again.

For Honor.

For Glory.

For Wrath.

For Rohan.

…For her.


	2. For her 2

Xander blinked at the soft glow that filled his body as a scent of life and joy seemed to fill the air.

Letting his eyes focus, he looked up at the stern face of Aragorn, "Did you heal me just to try to glare me to death or is there a reason I'm back among the living?" Xander asked as he tried to remember how he got to this room. In a flash it all came back to him.

iHe was charging into the Orc army, trying to keep up with the more able bodied horsemen and not get his head lopped off at the same time. Losing sight of Eowyn in the confusion and rallying around the King's banner at his command and then the terror came. Shrieking from the sky, it felt as if the cold hand of death itself reached into Xander's soul and took a grip on his heart.

The fear held him for only a moment before he managed to shake it off and see the danger. Steeling himself against the inevitable pain, Xander had leapt from his horse as the King's mount had reared in terror before crashing to the side.

The last thing he remembered was a great shadow falling over him as Theoden landed several feet away before the crushing weight of the horse had finally forced him to black out./i

Reaching up, he grabbed the Ranger's arm in concern, "Aragorn, the King, is he…?" he couldn't finish the question as he tried to ignore the knot in his gut.

"Theoden sits with his niece in the next room. I will tell him of your worries and send him to allay your fears." Aragorn said calmingly before placing Xander's hand back down beside him. "You have had a taxing day, Alexander. Sleep and then some food will do you more good than my presence right now."

Nodding, Xander let a sleepy chuckle escape, "Yeah, food good…Well good foods good, some of the stuff is kinda odd. Like that Elf bread. Between you and me, I've had about as much of that as I can stand." He said before relaxing back into the pillow. The lovely scent that had brought him out of sleep was slowly replaced by a less pleasant, but no less welcome scent of tobacco leaves being smoked, wafted in as someone in the neighboring room lit a pipe. "At least the hobbits are okay," he whispered before finally drifting off to sleep.

--

Xander looked out over the thatched houses of Edoras and at the burial mounds as he thought back to the hectic weeks following the war.

Both Aragorn and Eomer had ceded him lands on the border between the two kingdoms. He forced the swell of sadness down at the thought of Theoden falling at the Black Gate after surviving so much.

Shaking the thought off, Xander turned his mind back to his lands and smirked at the memory of Gimli's slack expression when Xander had brought the silvery metal to him to identify. It seems none of the miners or metal workers on his lands had ever seen Mithril before. A small deposit to be sure, nothing like the fabled mines of Moria, but more than enough to keep Xander's lands out of debt for the next several generations.

Generations, it appeared he was here to stay. Gandalf and Galadriel had spoken to him at length about the portal that brought him here before shaking their heads at the thought of sending him back.

It looked like the Valar had had a hand in bringing Xander to Middle Earth and not even Gandalf the White was willing to cross them, which meant that he had settled down to the life of a lesser noble on the lands between two allied nations and tried to make the best of it.

Turning at the sound of the large wooden doors opening, Xander swallowed as she stepped out of the Hall and nodded for him to enter.

Now came the scariest moment of his life.

Gripping his sword hilt at his hip so his hand wouldn't shake, Xander passed into the Golden Hall to beg King Eomer for Eowyn's hand in marriage.


	3. For Her 3

Xander stared out over the small valley and sighed at the sight before him.

Fifteen hundred Orc and Hillmen milled about in what could roughly be called 'Battle formation.' In truth they were only slightly better trained than your average mob.

The Hillmen were hungry wild-eyed savages that screamed and brandished crude rock and wood weaponry.

The orcs were only in slightly better shape. Old, their weapons ancient, some even holding the mass-produced 'Neck-Cutters' Sarumon had issued to his armies forty years earlier.

"Fifteen hundred beings that hardly qualify as footmen against four thousand horsemen of the Mark? This will be a slaughter and you know it father."

With a sigh Xander looked over at his commander, "Ameran, if my prayers are answered, it shall bring us a victory here and avenge our people."

"Of course father, none shall escape our wrath, their blood will water this field " The golden haired warrior swore with a smile before pulling his sword loose from its scabbard and signaling the army forward.

"So bloodthirsty, my brother."

Xander snorted at the soft-spoken words that managed to carry over the roar of warriors as they surged towards the enemy.

Turning towards his eldest daughter, Xander wondered again at how much she looked like her mother. His gaze was drawn to the small broach she fingered carefully as she watched the start of the battle.

Resisting the urge to growl at what that broach symbolized Xander turned back to the fight as well.

"So you would ask for mercy for these beings?" Xander asked as the first wave of horsemen crashed into the press of bodies.

Snorting at the question, Eowas, daughter of Eowyn watched the bloody work of her brother with satisfaction as he carved his way into the monsters that had been raiding their western lands for the last several months.

"Mercy? For these 'things' no father, nothing so dishonorable to those they've slaughtered." She said with feeling as she remembered the burnt out buildings of the last village these raiders had struck. "I feel he takes this too personally is all, it may… interfere with his perception and blind him to danger."

Nodding at her statement, Xander kept a close eye on the proceedings for several minutes before looking down in sadness. "The last settlement they hit was Edensmoore, a young woman by the name of Glyn lived there." Xander said softly as he looked over and saw the confusion in his daughter's eyes. "You may remember her as the dark haired lass whose token he wore at this last summers games." He said by way of explanation.

At her understanding look, Xander nodded. "They were to write up a contract this winter with both her father's blessing and my own."

Looking down as the last resisting group of the raiders were slaughtered Xander turned from it to the three unarmored men who rode with his personal guards. "See to it that the survivors are given a fair and just trial, those found guilty are to be executed at dawn three days hence." He ordered the judges that had accompanied him. One from Gondor, one from Rohan and one chosen from the Judges of his own lands.

They would be fair, of that he was sure. But given the evidence against the survivors, Xander would be surprised if a dozen were saved from execution.

The slightly uneasy feeling in his belly at the thought of those deaths on his head were all that was left of the initial revulsion he had felt the first time he had gone to view the death of another being outside of combat.

It had been an assassin, one of the few survivors of the Dark Lord's minions, the man had been responsible for the deaths of two of his personal guards and had actually made it into his children's room when he had been captured.

The disgust Xander had felt at watching the man die had only been overshadowed by the terror brought on by the thought of him actually succeeding.

Turning from the slaughter Xander, headed back towards the encampment his men had set up the night before.

Glancing over he saw the still troubled expression his daughter wore and nudged his horse closer. "So was I to find out after you were married or were you going to wait until my first grandchild was born?" he asked smugly as she looked at him in shock.

He smiled at her for a moment before looking down at the broach again. "From what I hear it is unseemly for a young man to court someone of your station without her father's consent." He said as she tucked the small object back into her cloak and reddened at his finding out.

Giving her a moment for the embarrassment to cloud her mind Xander turned back to watch where he was going. "Well, as expensive as that bauble seems to be it certainly narrows the possibilities down considerably. Perhaps Count Windhelm?" Xander asked with a casual smile as his daughter looked at him in understandable shock, the man was nearly as old as Xander himself after all. Thinking about it over his daughter's choked shock, Xander shook his head at the candidate. "No, he's a bit too antiquated for this. If he was courting you I would have had to deal with his giving a minutes report on everything you and he did." Xander said conversationally.

Thinking it over again, Xander frowned as another candidate came to mind. "Perhaps the Duke of Greenhall." Xander suggested as he thought of the fourteen-year-old that already had gained a reputation of chasing women.

Considering it, he shook his head again. "No, if it was he would have bragged about it at court already and I would have twenty nobles clamoring at me over your disgraceful habits, it being your fault of course as nothing could ever be his."

Looking over at her uncomfortable silence Xander finally decided to try one of the two names he actually considered a possibility.

Taking a moment to sigh, Xander looked at her "So if it's not Windhelm or Greenhall that leaves either the future guardian of Dul Amroth or…" Xander trailed off as she looked decidedly uncomfortable. "Or the much chased Prince of Gondor." Xander finished and nodded at her guilty nod.

Chuckling at the thought of the prince of one of the most powerful kingdoms being too scared to talk him, Xander shook his head as he remembered his own terror. "In that case I suppose we should request his presence so Ameran and your mother can properly scare him before he comes to ask." Xander said and smiled at her pained groan.

The rest of the walk back to camp was spent with her trying to convince him to keep it from her brother for as long as possible.


	4. For Her 4

Alexander sat on the raised dais and watched the workings of his court, tax collectors, workers, money lenders, soldiers, peasants and aristocrats milled about beneath his gaze as they worked to keep his lands working smoothly. He had offered the throne to Ameran, since this would be his last season as king because his lands needed strength and his was failing as the years went by.

"I don't hate you." Xander said simply as the slight amount of noise warned him of his approaching visitor.

Legolas knew to make some slight noise when around Alexander, even at his advanced age the human had a habit of attacking when startled.

"Truly?" Legolas asked in disbelief as he stared at his friend in surprise. Most hated him for his agelessness as the years took their toll on human bodies.

Smirking as he watched some small drama play out beneath him, Xander took a moment to look at one of the few remaining Elves in middle earth. "I pity you my friend, to walk the earth after everyone else is gone, that is not a wish I would make on my worst enemy. Even the long lived Gimli and Aragorn are showing their ages as we mortals do, while you look the same as you did so many years ago when we first met." The once Zeppo said as he looked at his friend's features for any sign that time held sway on him.

"You will watch as I die, and my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, all will pass away as you walk alone, until you are cut down by some villain's sword and fade into the memories of legend." Xander said as he looked back down to his court with a smile.

"Is that how my story is to end?" Legolas asked as he wondered if his friend had the gift of sight so many claimed he did.

"Perhaps, or perhaps not. How would you have it end?" Xander countered as he stood and nodded as those beneath him silenced their noise and bowed respectfully as he left.

Legolas walked beside him for several seconds before answering. "I would die laughing with my friends and allies as we celebrated in joy." The prince of Mirkwood answered as he paced the slow steps of his friend while they made their way outside into the cool air of Angbarsbane.

"Wouldn't we all." Xander said simply as he looked out over the works that had been accomplished in the last fifty years since the end of the third age.

His lands were secure, his children grown and married, his debts paid, his people happy and prosperous. It was time for he and his wife to step down and let the next generation take the reigns of rule.

Only one thing remained of his old life.

He had all but forgotten the world he came from, the world of machines and smoke. Where monsters ruled the night and man went around blissfully ignorant during the day.

He had settled all accounts in this world; he was unwilling to go to his grave leaving matters unsettled in the last.

Looking down from the steps, Alexander let a smile flow over his face as he watched his wife work with the horsemen as they trained the new recruits of riders.

She was too old to ride anymore, so she spent the midweek working with the new trainees and their horses.

Her hair had shifted from gold to silver in the past years, her age lined face told the tale of hard work and battles that formed this land and carved a kingdom from the rock.

He didn't know where he would be without her.

With a smile, Legolas helped his friend down to where his wife was working.

He would regret the day these two left this mortal coil, but he would sing the song of their lives to theie grandchildren's grandchildren.

--

Alexander sat up in bed, a cold sweat the only reminder of the nightmare he had only recently woken from.

Something was coming, he wasn't sure what, but as sure as he knew the sun would rise he knew that something was coming. "TO ARMS!" the words were out of his mouth as he slid from bed and grabbed his sword tightly "TO ARMS ALL MEN! TO ARMS!"

Sliding his sword to its place Alexander started to put on the Scaled Mithril armor his people had insisted he accept as he refused to stay away from his lands battles.

Looking up as his guardsmen pushed the door open, Alexander blinked as the torchlight overpowered his eyesight for a moment before he managed to adjust and took in the room.

His Guards were looking around the room for dangers as Eowyn armed herself for whatever was to come.

"Tell the captain of the watch to sound the horns of Emosberg, every man woman and child capable of bearing arms is to be ready for war within the hour." Alexander ordered as his mind flew around in circles as he tried to find a reason for his panic. Taking a moment to make sure the men he had ordered left to do as instructed, Alexander continued to put on his armor as he turned to another. "Send out the riders, all towns are to be woken and alert for attacks and the signal fires to Rohan and Gondor are to be lit immediately." the dimensionally misplaced Scooby ordered as he finished arming himself and set out for the throne room.

He didn't have to turn to know his wife was as ready as himself for whatever was to come.

--

"My Lord?"

Alexander looked up at the quiet words and raised a single eyebrow at the young captain that stood before him.

It had been three hours since he had raised the Alarm and the last two had been haunted by the whispered words of his commanders as they tried to find some reason for the call to arms their king had ordered.

"My lord we stand ready, what are your orders?" the young man said as he tried not to tremble in terror of his king's anger.

Or worse, his disappointment.

"What it your name Captain?" Alexander asked as he gazed at the man before him.

"Gremere My lord, of the house of Ecebarg." The dark haired man said with as much pride in his house of farmers as any warrior house.

"Well Gremere Ecebarg. Tell me, if you hear a wolf within your fields and call your brothers to stand with the flock, how long would you bid them stand?" Alexander asked as he looked to his other commanders for several seconds before looking back at the only one brave enough to ask the question to his face. "Would you have them stand an hour, two perhaps? Maybe three?" He asked and smiled at the man's flush as he figured out what his king was saying.

"If I heard wolves within my fields I would bid them stand until the wolves show themselves in hunger." The farmer's son said before bowing deeply to his king and returning to his station.

Taking a breath, Alexander leaned his head back against his chair, he had almost drifted off to rest when the faint sounds of horns ripped all thoughts of sleep from his mind.

Sitting up Alexander looked towards the door as the sound of frantic feet was followed by a boy no older then twelve rushing into the great hall.

"Goblins my lord, some great host sally forth from the mountains." The boy said as he stumbled up and dropped the folded report from his town's chief man into Alexander's lap.

Picking up the parchment Alexander read it carefully before looking down at his commanders with a smile. "It seems my brothers that the wolves have become very hungry this night."


End file.
